The Formula 1 paddock rarely misses a chance to stir up conspiracy theories – especially when one team looks suspiciously faster than the rest. But Lando Norris isn’t buying the whispers.
As the new 2026 season unfolds, questions have swirled around whether Mercedes might be holding a hidden advantage over its customer teams thanks to deeper knowledge of its own power unit.
For McLaren – which relies on Mercedes engines – the speculation has only intensified after the season opener. Norris, however, insists there’s nothing underhanded going on.
‘It’s as simple as that’
At the first race of the year, the Australian Grand Prix, Mercedes’ pace sparked debate after the works squad appeared to have a stronger grasp of the new power unit’s complex energy management.
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella openly acknowledged that the Woking-based outfit was still learning how to extract the maximum from the engine – a process that clearly takes time in a season shaped by radically new regulations.
But Norris says the gap has nothing to do with Mercedes withholding information.
“I think we get everything that we want [from Mercedes],” Norris told reporters in Shanghai on Thursday. “I certainly don't think there's any of that.
“We're very happy, we’re just delayed on all of these processes and therefore not being able to be as prepared as what we want to be. It's as simple as that.
“We're playing catch up at round one rather than saying, ‘We feel like we've nailed everything. Why is there still a gap?’ There's a big gap and we're figuring out things along the way – which is too late in the world of Formula 1.
“No, it's none of that stuff [Mercedes not providing everything it has to]. It’s just when you're in the world of preparation, when you don't feel prepared and you're finding out things along the way, that's just not the position you want to be in.”
Experience the Crux of the Matter
The heart of the issue, according to Norris, isn’t secrecy – it’s simply experience.
Mercedes’ factory team has spent far longer working with its own power unit, building up the kind of operational knowledge that can only come from extensive testing and simulation.
Customer teams like McLaren are still catching up.
“We've worked very closely ever since and they've helped us achieve the last couple of world championships together. So it's certainly not like that's not the case already,” Norris explained.
“It's just early on in the season, there's just a lot of things to try and figure out and understand. It's just that it's not told, let's say…
“Certain things don't need to be told because you always try and create your own advantages, but at the same time, there are certain things that we are having to figure out for ourselves.
“I don't know what the rules are and what has to be said or not, and those kind of things – that’s down to Andrea and the rest of the team – but we've always worked closely. We'll continue to do it.”
That process of discovery can be painful in Formula 1, where even small inefficiencies in energy deployment can translate into massive lap-time losses.
Catching Up in a Fast-Moving Season
The reality, Norris admits, is that McLaren simply started the season behind the curve.
The team did not receive the latest power unit as early as it would have liked, leaving less time to fully understand its quirks before racing began.
“As much as he said some of these things, there were still a lot of things that we just didn't explore and maximize ourselves,” Norris said.
“That's kind of irrelevant at the same time – if we just do a better job ourselves and maximized it and figure it out more earlier, we would just do better anyway.
Read also: Wolff shuts down rumors of Mercedes works team’s PU edge“But the fact that we didn't have the newer power unit at an earlier point meant that we're always going to be on the back foot compared to a team that's performing extremely well, that’s a lot more prepared than we are able to be.
“I guess we just want to be able to be more prepared and that's the main thing we've asked for.”
Ahead of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, Norris believes McLaren’s understanding is already improving.
And if he’s right, the conspiracy theories may soon give way to something much more straightforward: a team that simply needed a little time to catch up.
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